Public middle- and high-school students in St. Johns County will be given automatic grades of 100 on their final exams this spring.
That’s the solution the district is putting forward after a major technology malfunction in its testing platform caused the exams to be canceled last week.
St. Johns Superintendent Tim Forson announced the decision to parents Tuesday after consulting with teachers and administrators.
“We wanted to make sure that whatever decision we made that there was no chance that a student was going to be negatively impacted. They’re not the one—they’re not to blame. I’m the one that owns this, so we were going to do the very best to make it right for them,” said Forson.
The exams count for 10% of course grades. Students who will benefit most are those right on the cusp of the next letter grade, according to Forson.
The automatic 100s and test cancelations apply only to district-wide end-of-year tests. Students will still take state-mandated end-of-year exams, and Advanced Placement (AP) tests.
Forson said the district is switching to a new testing platform before the next school year.
Contact Jessica Palombo at 904-358-6315, jpalombo@wjct.org or on Twitter at @JessicaPubRadio.
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